Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Blind Chance - 7/10
I saw "Run Lola Run" 20 years ago, and think I'd like it more if I had seen this first although I don't find it that fascinating anymore, unlike the aforementioned at a time I hadn't seen so many "experimental" movies..... And speaking of the subject matter and censorship, this movie was delayed, but I actually wanted to mention another movie one might see, but inspired by a better (but not as popular) movie, like "Ucho" (The Ear) is to a movie like "The Lives of Others" - with it's overblown nudity and love scenes, hedonism, and other little mainstream shit that got on my nerves, or maybe it's the disparity in popularity. Ala "Le Chat" (being a better, more natural version) to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" or a movie like "The Doll" (1962) inspiring 'Lars' and "Her'.

__________________
https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

Have you seen any Cassavetes directed movies? Most are on YouTube for Free! For me, they are ALWAYS better on the 2nd or 3rd tries, because John never spoon-feeds the audience and has a lot of things going (physically, emotionally, verbally, etc) and I tend to always catch more and thus appreciate more.. I feel the same with Robert Altman.

Shhhhhhh!!! Don't let Minio hear that you're suggesting people watch movies on YouTube!!!

I've been in a movie slump for the past handful years, but it's always a YouTube movie that gets me out of it. The rest were thanks to TCM.
But some people insist on paying.

The Garfield Movie - 10/10

Best animated movie of the year so far.

__________________

Cassavetes is a bit of a blind spot for me, but I did dip my toes last year with his debut film: Shadows. I thought it was pretty solid.

Now as an actor, I've seen him in this and Rosemary's Baby, which is a favorite.

__________________

The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)

The TV series is so magnificently stupid that one might hope the movie would reflect some of this mindless but somehow exhilarating idiocy.

But no.

I can't remember the last time I saw something so pointlessly grim and disturbing, and so completely out of touch with its source material. Burt Reynolds is especially creepy as a Boss Hogg who is all menace and no buffoon.

There are two brief and funny moments in the entire movie, one in which the boys pretend to be Japanese businessmen, and another when Daisy references her undercarriage, but otherwise, pure torture.

And I could have been watching Dune 2!

0/5 Moonshine-filled Mason jars

PS: Looking for some way to redeem my ill-advised purchase, I did find this in Special Features...

Not a parody created after the fact, but actually on the official DVD release of this disaster of a movie.



5/5 Daisy Duke-clad Barbies for sheer insanity

By CineMaterial, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59777985

Escape Room - (2019)

A bunch of young people, all sole survivors of some kind or another, are invited to an escape room challenge where the rooms themselves are especially deadly. This leans more towards the cleverness of the puzzles rather than Saw-like gruesomeness, which, considering some of the rooms, was definitely in the offing. I was on the edge of my seat a couple of times, but I should have felt more tense - I thought the film made many of the contestants a little too unlikeable, with a couple being outright jerks. I was cheering for nobody in this - but I liked the ideas behind some of the rooms.

5/10


By Studio and or Graphic Artist - Can be obtained from film’s distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67543050

Petite Maman - (2021)

When her grandmother dies, eight-year-old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) feels lost and alone, until she meets young Marion (Gabrielle Sanz), who feels strangely familiar, and with whom she'll build an amazing friendship. This is a sweet, surreal, emotionally fulfilling movie. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

8/10

__________________

No End (1985)

My favorite is "A Woman Under The Influence". Hope you check it out!



There's also this great interview (after)

In the Land of Saints & Sinners


A Liam Neeson film from last year that is unlike a modern Neeson film. Almost felt like an Irish Taylor Sheridan movie instead.

Less of a thriller & more of a drama/character study. The rest of the cast, which includes a former GOT favourite, is brilliant, as well & I would include the beautiful scenery of Ireland in that.

I would highly recommend this movie.

Yeah, that and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie are kinda the big ones that most people recommend. I will definitely get to them at some point. Thanks.

Interesting.. "Killing" is usually one people complain about, and probably the only movie I don't like of his... The few big studio movies he made were good. "A Child Is Waiting" is a 10/10, and a great role for Judy Garland, but Kramer had final cut, but still great. Another movie Burt Lancaster chose wisely (he picked MANY great ones). The best movie I saw about music (especially the integrity vs. business aspect) is "Too Late Blues".

Terror in the Midnight Sun - This 1959 Swedish-American production was known by many names, Invasion of the Animal People, Rymdinvasion i Lappland (Space Invasion of Lapland) in it's native Sweden and Terror in the Midnight Sun internationally. It started out in Swedish cinemas before having the rights quickly sold to an American producer who copiously re-edited it and released it in the states in 1962. Unfortunately it so muddled what little story there was that the end result is a leaden, jumbled mess. A supposed meteor lands in the wilds of northern Sweden near the Arctic Circle. There are enough anomalous aspects to the meteor crash that it attracts the attention of geologist Dr. Vance Wilson (Robert Burton). His niece Diane (Barbara Wilson) is an Olympic skater which leads to a somewhat prolonged skating routine which basically serves to eat up screentime. There's a distressingly large quantity of those space filler moments. She's romanced by her uncle's young colleague Erik Engström (Sten Gester) and when they aren't skiing in travelogue length stretches they're shown dining and drinking and dancing. In real time. You wil be sorely tempted to make use of the fast forward button on your remote.

Something finally happens to advance the story when a herd of reindeer are found slaughtered near the meteor crash site. A 20 foot tall Yeti looking beast shows up and it's unclear whether of not some bulbous headed figure inside the meteor is controlling it. People randomly do stuff and everyone, aliens included, behaves inexplicably while the heroine (who has stowed away) makes a general nuisance of herself while also being menaced by the monster. There's an incongruous love ballad theme song titled Midnight Sun Lament and a gratuitous shower scene with a flash of T&A (which I didn't think was allowed in 1959). But there's also Laplanders in what I can only assume are colorful native costumes (It's a B&W movie) speaking Laplander (again assuming since it sounds like they're making it up on the spot). There's also shots of them gathered around campfires telling ghost stories (yet another assumption) and singing and dancing. And yes, I was deeply disappointed that they never mentioned how much a Lapp dance cost. It all adds up to a peculiar and fundamentally mediocre exercise in WTF?

30/100

1st Rewatch...The atmospheric direction of James Bridges and the effortless charisma of John Travolta are the anchors of this compelling look at the relationship between a young oilfield worker named Bud and an effervescent barfly named Sissy, who become engaged on their second date. It's the canvas that Bridges creates for this movie that makes it special. This is the movie that made country and western music, a mechanical bull, and being a cowboy, sexy.

Good movie.

__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

2nd Rewatch...Even if she never makes another movie, Greta Gerwig has carved herself a niche in cinematic history for being the creative force behind what was, arguably, the most talked about movie of 2023. The mystique of the famous doll that almost every little girl in the 1960's grew up with is explored in this ridiculously imaginative story that finds Barnie questioning her Utopian existence in Barbie World and learns that the only way to fix things is to travel to the real world and find the little girl who played with her. Ken, feeling rudderless without his girlfriend, accompanies Barbie to the real world and ends up on his own journey of self-discovery. The movie is a musically enhanced feminist statement and battle of the sexes rolled up in one dazzling package that is a feast for the eyes and ears. The film received nine Oscar nominations and only won for Best Song, but a part of me still believes Gerwig and Noah Baumbach were robbed of the adapted screenplay for the most original thing we saw onscreen last year. Margot Robbie is enchanting in the title role and Ryan Gosling brought a vulnerable element to the sexy with his Ken that it earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The film features several spot-on musical sequences, including the homo-erotic "I'm Just Ken". it seems that most people either really loved this movie or really hated it, but I'm loving it more with each re-watch.

Cold Meat (2023-2024)

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Yeah, Killing might be divisive, but it does get a lot of praise. I mean, it made it into one of the recent countdowns here, so there's that.

Which countdown?